Literature
consists of a set of written texts (which are also often firmly rooted in the
oral tradition), aesthetically composed from common language and expressing the
cultural specificity of a community.

Portuguese literature was formed on the basis of a single, unified geographical
space, namely the Portuguese territory,

although
it was later to spread to various parts of the world as a consequence of the
Portuguese maritime discoveries in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
This great adventure resulted in an extremely rich travel
literature and was responsible for the expansion of the national language.

The
history of Portuguese literatureaccompanied the aesthetic evolution of western culture, emerging from a
mediaeval Latin-based environment that served as the basis for the formation and
perfection of literary language until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
It was also open to popular influences, particularly in the early days of historiography
(whose most important figure was Fernão Lopes,
with his remarkable capacity for describing mass social movements) and in the theatre
(whose most notable figure was Gil Vicente, with
his ability to communicate the traditional wisdom deriving from the spontaneity
of the ordinary people):

All
the glory in people’s life

comes from having money

and whoever wishes to have a great amount

must first be

as nasty as he can

Gil
Vicente, Auto da Feira - 1527

In
its origins, Portuguese literature was to
develop an intense lyricism with the poetry of
troubadours, and particularly with the cantigas
de amigo. Generally speaking, this tradition continued into classical
lyrical poetry, as well as into the poetry of Camões
in particular, and was taken up once again in a renewed fashion in the period of
Romanticism, which had a number of important
personalities: Garrett and the romantic
nationalism of amorous expression; Cesário
Verde and the simultaneously idealised and banal daily urban life; Antero de Quentaland the dilaceration of thought involved in concrete existence; Camilo
Pessanha and the dream of verbal perfection in the corrosion of
human time - as well as in the work of a great number of contemporary
poets.

Common
People! In the torn cloth of your shirts

I think I see a shining flag!

With this you suffer, drink and agonise:

Large stains of wine draw stripes upon it,

And your braces form a cross!

Cesário
Verde, Contrariedades - 1887

Luís
de Camões (16C) and
Fernando Pessoa
(20C) are, however, considered to be the greatest writers in the history of
Portuguese literature. In fact, Modernism
found perhaps its most personalised and complex expression in the figure and
writing of Pessoa (the founder of the Orpheu
magazine), for the galaxy of his heteronyms (the names of distinct personalities
with whom he composed his various works) represents a distinctive phenomenon in
his literary composition and in the corresponding human experience, with quite
surprising literary results, giving rise to genuine fiction in the art of
writing:

The
poet is a feigner.

So completely does he feign

that he even feigns that the pain

that he really feels is pain

Fernando
Pessoa, Autospsicografia - 1932

Lisbon, Largo de Camões(beginning of 20C)

But
fiction (especially the novel) has also enjoyed
its own particular periods of splendour in Portuguese literature. Ever since Bernardim
Ribeiro(16C), but particularly after the
periods of Romanticism and Realism,
the production of this literary genre has been steadily increasing, with an ever
greater interest being shown by both the reading public and the critics. On the
basis of the relationship between the individual and society, which was itself
the central feature in the apogee of the novel in the nineteenth century,
narrative prose has ceaselessly created a whole range of different aspects that
are worthy of being studied: the construction of the plot, the development of
the characters, relationships of social dominance, the problematics of existence,
subjective conflicts, the passage of time, the activity of writing, the hybrid
nature of genres, the rewriting of texts in the form of a parody and the
deconstruction of discourse.

At
nightfall, the commander came back from the shore and, his eyes clouded over
with tears, began to contemplate the exile, who was himself contemplating the
first stars, appearing high above the belvedere.

‘Are you looking for her in the sky?’ asked the sailor.

‘Am I looking for her in the sky?’ Simão repeated mechanically.

‘Yes!… The sky is where she must be.’

‘Who, sir?’

‘Teresa.’

‘Teresa!… Is she dead?’

‘She died over there on the belvedere, from where she was waving.’

Simão bent over the ship’s rail and stared into the torrent below. The
commander threw his arms around him and said:

‘Be brave, you poor wretch, be brave! Seafarers believe in God! Wait and the
sky will open up for you through the prayers of that angel!’

Mariana was right behind Simão and had raised her hands.

‘It’s all over!… murmured Simão. ‘Now I’m free… to die…’

Camilo
Castelo Branco, Amor de Perdição - 1862

There
is a world in each stone, time, with its human torrent, will be enveloped by a
gloomy void, a void of all thwarted intentions. In enmity, in mistrust and
desolation, footsteps go ever faster, God’s writings are followed; everything
slips into eternity, in a fog of impotence and cold (…) Here my days go by,
here you die and resuscitate for me. History comes of age through your streets,
these fallen blinds, these locked doors that can only be broken open by a mental
smile.

Agustina
Bessa-Luís, A Muralha - 1957

Amongst
contemporary authors, there are a number of prominent figures whose vast
literary output spreads across different genres, in particular poetry, the
novel and the short story. But, in certain cases, plays, criticism, essays,
autobiography and diary-writing are also to be found. Such writers include
many who have since disappeared, although until quite recently they
represented important influences on the Portuguese intellectual scene, with
their manifold personalities and diversified talent, generally committed to
forging an alliance, and sometimes a conflict, between poetic labours and
concrete existence, and to reaffirming literature’s lucid (i.e.
intelligent and radiant) capacity for understanding what is real: Miguel
Torga, Vitorino Nemésio, Jorge
de Sena, Carlos de Oliveira
and David Mourão-Ferreira.

A poesia está na rua: 25 de Abril de 1974, a poster alluding to this famous date, created by
Helena Vieira da Silva

In
the field of prose, we find a number of central female figures beginning to
emerge: Maria Judite de Carvalho,
Maria Velho da Costa and Maria
Gabriela Llansol. These dedicate themselves to a type of fiction that
reworks the traditional novel and short story, bringing them closer to other
genres (chronicles, poems in prose and other types of writing extraneous to
normal literary conventions), experimenting with new forms for the expression of
narrative discourse.

In
a story, there is (or is not) a moment of revelation which is said to be
sublime. Normally a brief one. As I believe that a skilled reader already knows
all the plots, this moment is practically all that matters in writing.